"A judgment against Illinois for not paying union members' automatic raises is going to put lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner under even greater pressure to work out a balanced budget.
The Illinois’ Supreme Court recently decided it would not take up Rauner’s appeal of a lower court ruling that the state has to pay thousands of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 their automatic raises, called step increases. Rauner and lawmakers now have to figure out how to pay for those pay hikes that have been accumulating since summer 2015.
Rauner’s office won’t give any figures about how much the judgment will cost the state, but analyses of public payrolls estimate the cost to be $400 million over four years.